Who are Grant Fisher’s parents? US long-distance runner honors family legacy with bronze in 10,000m race

PARIS, FRANCE: Long-distance runner Grant Fisher became the first US athlete in over a decade to win a medal in the 10,000 meters race, the longest race of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The 27-year-old runner secured bronze, finishing just 0.02 seconds behind Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregaw and Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei. He had earlier broken Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele’s 15-year-old record by more than six seconds during the 2020 Olympics.

All in the genes: Grant Fisher's family legacy

Grant Fisher's parents Dan and Sonia Fisher were also runners who met each other on the track at Arizona State University in 1986, according to a 2014 piece by Michigan news outlet MLive.

Moreover, Grant’s Team USA bio for the 2024 Olympics mentioned that his grandfather also ran in the Pac-12, a conference for collegiate athletes.

While talking about son Grant in 2014, Dan told MLive, "He has a good gene pool. We’re proud of him. It’s been an athletic success with his grandparents also, and his brother and sister (Mark and Hailey) are exceptional athletes."

Grant attended Stanford University from 2015-2019 where he studied electrical engineering and competed on the school’s track and field team.

Grant is proud of his family's legacy. He told MLive, "My family has always been into athletics and my parents have always encouraged us to pursue athletics and academics, so I have to credit a lot of what I’ve done to them and it’s been great having a support system like the one I do at home.”

Interestingly, Grant’s coach Mike Scannell and his father Dan were roommates and teammates during their college athletic years at Arizona University. Their bond strengthened further when they joined the same company.

Scannell sharpened Grant’s ability and made several inputs, such as the barefoot training schedule, helped the runner in his early days in the NCAA. These improvisations resulted in his stellar timing in the 5000m NCAA final, according to Essentially Sports.

Grant also has a girlfriend named Sarah Walker whom he met when they were both runners at Stanford. Walker told Park Record in July 2024 that she had "never seen (Grant) happier" while he prepared for the Paris Olympics.

Walker will be supporting Grant at the Olympics and then travel with him around Europe before moving to Boston to begin Tufts University's human factors engineering degree, according to the news outlet.

US becomes first country to cross 3,000 Olympics medal count 

The US has become the first country in Olympics history to secure a milestone of 3,000 medals with its recent wins at the 2024 Paris Games.

While entering the competition, the US had 2,975 medals at past summer and winter Olympics, according to the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage.

The US crossed the 3,000 mark on Tuesday, July 30, after Team USA earned its 26th medal in this year's Olympics. Several medals have come from swimming events. The US has won 15 swimming medals. So far, the US has won nine gold, 18 silver and 16 bronze. Their total medal tally has gone to 43.

Notably, Team USA's men's gymnasts won their first Olympic medal in the team event since 2008, securing a bronze on Monday, July 29. The women's team secured gold in the team competition on Tuesday, where Simone Biles led her team to victory.